NCJ Number
93191
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 8 Issue: 1/2 Dated: (June 1984) Pages: 133-151
Date Published
1984
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The legal process of death qualification of jurors may undermine the fairness and impartiality of capital juries, as biasing effects are inherent in the basic structure of the process.
Abstract
The death qualification process draws the attention of prospective jurors away from the presumption of innocence and focuses on postconviction events. These biasing effects are intensified by the tone and logic of the questioning that occurs in the courtroom. Trial judges have little real control over the occurrence or magnitude of these effects. As a result, legal fairness in a capital trial can vary unpredictably as a function of what happens during the death-qualifying voir dire. In addition, the process effect may function additively and thus may worsen the perspective of an already conviction-prone jury whose composition has been distorted by the outcome of this selection process. However, the basic process does not vary by venue or panel, even though the composition effect does. Death qualification puts defense attorneys in the untenable position of having to choose between two prejudicial effects, knowing that to reduce one is to intensify the other. Death qualification appears to have even more serious consequences for capital defendants. Footnotes and a list of 11 references are provided. (Author abstract modified)